At Prime Minister's Questions Rushanara questioned Boris Johnson about the Government's procurement of goods and services during the pandemic.

Since May, Government contracts worth over £1 billion had been awarded to private companies without a competitive tendering process. 

In April this year, the Government spent £150 million on unusable masks, and in July, £120 million was awarded to a medical company owned by a Tory councillor.

This has created an unaccountable system which lacks transparency and has led to taxpayers' money being wasted. Whilst the Government needed to act urgently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has abandoned the need for basic checks and due diligence with the public footing the bill.

The Government vowed to “demonstrate value for money on every pound of taxpayers' money spent”, but has repeatedly broken this promise by awarding contracts without proper scrutiny.

The Prime Minister was unable to answer Rushanara's question in the chamber, but instead invited her to write to him about this issue, which you can read below.